Rethinking trust in tourism apps: the moderating effect of age

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of trust and effect of age in the process of technology acceptance. Design/methodology/approach Using data collected from an online survey, this study conducts structural equation modeling to assess the relationship between technology adoption and users’ trust in that technology. Findings Findings of this study indicate that the formation of trust in technology is based on user experiences (i.e. the perception of usefulness and ease of use), while the perception of trust in technology is similar to human-like trust (i.e. competence and benevolence). This study clarifies that trust has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived technology ease of use and behavioral intention to use. Trust belief of competence is found to be more effective on adoption behavior than trust belief of benevolence. In exploring the moderating effect of age, results find that easy use of an app is crucial for elderly people to create trust belief in technical competence and develop behavioral control over such technologies. Trust in technology is an essential factor that should be widely applied when analyzing technology adoption behaviors. Originality/value This study contributes in three ways. First, it reveals both how trust in technology is formed and the effect of that trust on technology adoption. Second, it extends the discussion of age as a variable in tourism app usage. Third, it shows how the experience of usage influences intentions towards the adoption of tourism apps.

Mapping tourism and hospitality research on information and communication technology: a bibliometric and scientific approach

“… From the adoption of future technology perspective, more attention must be paid to the emerging new technologies and the processes and factors forming trust in these technologies. As destinations and tourism companies continuously need to use new technologies to provide better services and experiences (Hua et al 2021 ), research looking into the adoption of the emerging technologies becomes very vital. As technological advances and applications in tourism and hospitality occur in increasing speed, it becomes essential to examine whether travelers seek out new and unusual new technology experiences in the same rate (Koo and Chang 2021 ).…”

“…Such knowledge can better help us understand how technology adoption happens and/or not happens and how context and situational factors can play an important role in the former. In addition, it would be relevant to better understand the barriers that do not favor trust in new technology, because although previous research shows that trust in technology significantly influences technology adoption, past studies also provide inconsistent findings regarding the process of forming technology trust (Hua et al 2021 ). Social media and ICT in future research.…”

Enhancing tourist loyalty through location-based service apps: Exploring the roles of digital literacy, perceived ease of use, perceived autonomy, virtual-content congruency, and tourist engagement

“…The role of perceived ease of use in consumers’ intention to l-apps has been verified in several studies [ 53 , 54 ]. In the tourism scenario, user-friendly apps can help tourists effectively find the required information by reducing the psychological cost when searching for the information [ 55 ]. When visiting a new place, tourists can be overwhelmed by the information by different l-apps that feature different functions [ 56 ].…”

A scale for measuring tourists’ technological competence

“…When traveling, tourists also tend to share what they are doing on social networks (Femenia-Serra et al , 2019). Some tourists also use computer software or mobile apps to plan their travel itinerary (Camilleri et al , 2023; Hua et al , 2021).…”